Unmanned Aircraft Sysytems and Visual Arts

Installations and Performances

  • James Bridle, London
    • Drone Shadow series
    • Artist’s essay on the Drone Shadow series: http://booktwo.org/notebook/drone-shadows/
      • Extract: “We all live under the shadow of the drone, although most of us are lucky enough not to live under its direct fire. But the attitude they represent—of technology used for obscuration and violence; of the obfuscation of morality and culpability; of the illusion of omniscience and omnipotence; of the lesser value of other peoples lives; of, frankly, endless war—should concern us all.”
    • Drone Shadow 009, October 2015, installed at ZKM Karlsruhe for “Globale” exhibition
    • Drone Shadow 008, June 2015, installed at KW Berlin for exhibition “Fire and Forget”
    • Drone Shadow 007, June 2014, installed for “After a War” series of events at Batter Sea Arts Centre, London.
    • Drone Shadow 006, 2013, installed Brixton, London
    • Drone Shadow 005, 2013, commissioned by Brisbane Writers Festival; installation blocked by Arts Queensland, the arts board of the state government.
    • Drone Shadow004, June 2013, part of “A Quiet Disposition” solo show at Corcoran, Washington DC
    • Drone Shadow 003, 2013, Commissioned by Lighthouse for the Brighton Festival, UK
    • Drone Shadow 002, Istanbul, October 2012, for Adhocracy and the Istanbul Design Biennial
    • Drone Shadow 001, London, February 2012, with Einar Sneve Martinussen of Voy Oslo
  • Dronestagram: The Drone’s Eye View, “An artwork, 2012-2015, by James Bridle.” Social media performance art.
    • http://booktwo.org/notebook/dronestagram-drones-eye-view/
    • “A Dronestagram Family Portrait” essay by the artist on Murmuration, describing the site of the strike, the people impacted by it, the place from where the drone likely flew, what type of drone was involved, and how it was made: http://murmurationfestival.tumblr.com/post/52952628237/a-dronestagram-family-portrait
    • Note: Bridle’s Dronestagram project is different from http://www.Dronestagr.am, which is a site based in France dedicated to drone photo, video & community resources
  • The New Aesthetic, 2011
    • Interview:http://www.furtherfield.org/features/interviews/machine-visions-james-bridle-drones-bots-and-new-aesthetic
  • UAV Identification Kit 001, 2012, created while Artist in Residence at Visible Futures Lab at School of Visual Arts, NYC.
    • Essay on the work: http://booktwo.org/notebook/uav-identification-kit/
      • Excerpt: “Models are still employed for recognition training today, as well as for strategic planning, battlefield, airfield and carrier management, and design testing. Meanwhile, the actual aircraft become ever harder to perceive. Based at remote airfields in conflict zones, and largely operating in other zones inaccessible to ground troops or journalists, the only direct witnesses to their activities are those on the ground beneath them, disconnected from those who pilot them, those who issue their orders, and those in whose name they are directed.”
  • Under the Shadow of the Drone, an armed reaper drone under service with UK and US military; Brighton Festival 2013
  • Nadav Assor, Angels exhibition; drone reciting religious texts from Ezekiel, Tel Aviv: http://www.juliem.com/#!nadav-assor-june14/c1xid
  • Nadav Assor, “Orphan”, 2014, Installation with custom made hexacopter, control, power and sensing equipment, custom software, speaker, and lights
    • https://vimeo.com/106673414 (4:36)
  • “Drone Aviary” project, Superflux Lab. 
    • Video: https://vimeo.com/124292043
    • Associated blog: http://www.superflux.in/blog/the-drone-aviary
  • Silvestre Pestana (Italy)
    • http://www.digicult.it/art/silvestre-pestana-technoform/
    • Performances as resistance; include UAS
  • Ricardo Dominguez, “hacktivist and dronologist”, co-founder of Electronic Disturbance Theater, Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, UCSD
    • Drone Crash Incident, with Ian Alan Paul and Jane Stevens, December 2012, University of California San Diego, with support of UC Center for Drone Policy and Ethics.
    • Drones at Home, date unknown, multi-phase public project
      • Phase 3: http://www.calit2.net/events/popup.php?id=2051
  • Sterling Crispin
    • Charon, Quadcopter, Motion Capture System, Opengl Simulation, 3d Printed Flightpath, Flat Screen TV, 2013
    • Catch and Release, collaboration of Tim Wood, RJ Duran, and Sterling Crispin, performance piece created for “Life in the Age of Drones” Symposium at UCSB, May 23, 2013
      • http://mat.ucsb.edu/show/2013/projects/catch-and-release
  • Vesna Kittelson, Da Vinci and the Drone, live streaming site specific installation, 2014
    • http://www.formandcontent.org/vesna-kittelson-sculpture/

 

Exhibitions

  • “Magic and Power: Of Magic Carpets and Drones”, February 27-June 05, 2016, Marta Herford (Gehry Galleries)
    • Multimedia contemporary art exhibition: “objects, drawings, photographs, videos and installation” that “examines the parallelity of magic carpet and unmanned air vehicle”
    • Extended version of 2015’s “Heaven and Hell” exhibit in Belgium
    • http://marta-herford.de/index.php/magic-and-power/?lang=en
  • John Beattie, “A Line of Inquiry”, October 15, 2015
  • Korakrit Arunanondchai, solo exhibition including History Paintings (which include drone parts), June 2-September 11, 2016, Museion, Bolanza, Italy
    • http://www.digicult.it/art/korakrit-arunanondchai-at-the-museion-in-bolzano/
  • Hito Steyerl, “Factory of the Sun”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, February 21-September 12, 2016
    • http://www.moca.org/exhibition/hito-steyerl-factory-of-the-sun

 

Social Media-Based/Open-Access Projects

  • Ruben Patar, Drone Survival Guide, Offset printed on Chromolux ALU-E mirrored paper, 48 x 33 cm, folded to 12 x 17 cm.
    • 37 different languages/bilingual printings
    • Chosen for 18th Art Division Excellence Award at 2014 Japan Media Arts Festival
  • Joseph DeLappe, Professor of Art, University of Nevada Reno
    • In Drones We Trust, 2014, single component of three part “crowd sourced participatory rubber stamp currency intervention”
      • http://www.delappe.net/intervene/rubber-stamp-currency-interventions/
    • Cowardly Drone, 2013
  • Drone Graffiti, anonymous worldwide submissions
  • Texts from Drone (inactive since April 2012)

Artists are using drones as tools to create works that toy with the notion of drones as destructive machines and instead as agents of beauty and imagination.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZJmPavJGQE&feature=youtu.be]

James Bridle and an armed reaper drone under service with UK and US military, 2013.

[video:https://vimeo.com/111941915]

"Black Hawk Powder" by Addie Wagenknecht. The artist has other works with drones and painting, including Permission to Fail: A Drone Painting Performance. 

KATSU is an artist that has made multiple works using graffiti drones. The artist also provides tutorials for anyone wishing to make their own graffiti drone.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAonIaBZtNc]

Richard Jackson's "Accidents in Abstract Painting". For a drone view, follow this link. 

"Speed Enforced by Drones" installation by Stephen Whisler. For more on the project, click here.